A real life J.D. Shapely ?

Boy, I hope so!

Now that I know whose work you read, I wonder how many others will get it.

I once considered leaving an invite to SL on that writer's blog - he would be sharp enough to *not* reveal who he was, in any case.

But having read enough of his works, it's pretty clear that he's not 'into' things like SL. A shame, that... I wonder what he would make of it.

Maybe Case would sign up, though.

Case jacks in from Chiba City. The neat part though is this could be promising, RL.

I didn't catch the name before, since it's been awhile since I've read Virtual Light, but it did remind me of that character. Wasn't Shapely a gay porn star and didn't he get beaten to death by homophobes before a vaccine was derived from his blood, thus becoming a Christ-like figure in VL?

About Gibson, from what I've read about his personal life, he's somewhat of a Luddite, IMO. He was definitely a hippie (there's filmed evidence of this from the CBC) and he wrote out the trilogy on a manual typewriter, IIRC. He's definitely no Sterling, who writes for Wired, has a blog (in which, last time I checked, had his daughter post her MMORPG screens on, at the time Lineage II), pops up in EFF lectures, etc.

Lets hijack a thread.

Gibson coined the term cyberspace, and while he did not write the cyberpunk manifesto, he certainly defined the genre more than any other author. I love all cyberbunk, but even in a field with many very good writers, Gibson stands out.

I think Gibson's work resonates so well because ultimately, gibson's stories are very human. They are people stories, not technology stories.

I loved Snow Crash, but ulitmately it was in part a parody, and a comic romp, filled with wonderful double entendre and satire. Snow crash is a great read. But ultimately it does not resonate. The story is not deeply human in the way say Gibsons' short story, "The Winter Market" its.

Similary with Bruce Sterling. As an advocate of the information age, as an author and critic whose "Cyberpunk Manifesto" gave form to a whole new way of thinking about science fiction, Sterling is a giant. But his stories, like many other cyberpunk authors do not share the same resonance as Gibson's do. We know Sterling as the Wired commentator who once wrote a few books, We know Gibson as the Author who revolutionized science fiction.

Like the authors of so many space operas before them, many Cyberpunk authors are too fascinated by the medium. They write cool stuff and bask in its coolness. Gibson on the other hand, did what all great science fiction authors do-told human sotries about humans, with the science fiction as a backdrop and vehicle.

Technology itself is less interesting than the human things we do with technology.

let's unhijack - for you with real lives, who might not be familiar with the book i referred to, the point is this: there is a guy in England, who, and this seems to be documented, self-cured from being HIV positive. He has agreed to go under a lot of testing to see how this was accomplished, and if there is any application to the rest of the world. I think this is pretty great. Link is above.


I apologize for not packaging the title into a more readily known reference, i hear so many metaverse comments in the forums that i assumed that everyone reads Gibson.

Hey it was a good hijack.

What ever happened to Magic Johnson? He had the aids, and then we never hear about it anymore?

Magic Johnson was HIV-Positive and never had AIDS. He returned to playing pro-basketball for a stint and was MVP of that year's All-Star game. He now owns movie theaters and does a lot of work helping inner city youths and a plethora of other things.

I wholeheartedly agree! And there'd be no technology without us to do it with! Emotional Technology.

Hijack? Likely not.

Bullet train? YES!